Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are launching a rigorous investigation into the recently revealed efforts by the Trump administration to obtain communications data for two Democratic members of Congress along with staffers and family members of each of them. The Trump administration subpoenaed and obtained these materials in connection to an investigation into the origin of leaks of government information, although no substantive evidence has apparently ever emerged tying either of the targeted members of Congress to the leaks.
Now, led by Senate Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Senate Democrats are seeking a slew of answers from the Justice Department about the situation. As the Senators put it in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, discussing the subpoenas in question:
‘This grave assault on a co-equal branch of government threatens the very foundation of our constitutional order—the separation of powers… Although compelling the production of metadata of Members, staff, and their families would raise grave separation of powers concerns in any leak case, these actions by former President Trump and Attorney General Barr raise additional concerns that DOJ’s investigative decisions in this case were motivated by improper political considerations.’
Trump, the Senators noted, repeatedly characterized Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — one of the targeted Democrats — as a leaker of government information, although the then-president had no legitimate basis for that allegation. Trump’s conspiracy theories, however, appear to have driven investigative choices at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Now, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary committee are asking for (among other things) “the factual and legal predicate for DOJ to include [House Intelligence Committee] Members, their staff, and family members in this investigation and in these subpoenas for metadata.” They’re also seeking “an immediate briefing on the matter,” as their letter put it.
Check out the full letter by clicking on the post below:
INBOX: Senate Judiciary Dems send letter to DOJ requesting answers, documents and a briefing about subpoenas of House Intelligence Committee members' Apple data. pic.twitter.com/sceqD2cZMH
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) June 14, 2021
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democrats insisted on answers to their questions by June 28, which is a couple of weeks down the line. Notably, Garland has already called for answers regarding the matter, noting on Monday that “[there] are important questions that must be resolved in connection with an effort by the department to obtain records related to Members of Congress and Congressional staff.” Durbin has also already indicated that he wants testimony from Trump era Attorney Generals Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr, both of whom have claimed that they had no knowledge of the subpoenas targeting Schiff and fellow Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell (Calif.).
